"Size Does Matter"

I was excited yesterday because I was going to play in the Monday Night Cedar Park tournament. I really like the structure because you only get $1500 to start. It was $20 buy-in.

I arrive a little bit on tilt because the baseball coach called for a last minute batting practice and I still needed to stop at the store for beer and money. I did arrive 5 minutes before the start but I hate cutting it that close. I quickly downed a couple of beers and I was ready to go.

At my table there were 2 players that appeared to be easy marks. The second or third hand I got pocket aces. I wanted to profit so I bet $200. I got one caller. I continue to bet $200, because nothing was threatening on the board. I managed to take half the stack of one of the strongest players in the tournament.

I moved away from the easy table to a tougher table of players I have never played with before. I was holding my own and grabbing a few more chips here and there. The broke down one of the tables and we shifted to two tables. The second hand of the new table I get AQo. I make a small raise and get one caller. Flop comes Q74 (2 diamonds). Other player bets $500, which was about a fourth of my stack. I put him on a queed but I knew I had the better kicker. What I did not pay attention to was the size of his stack. He had a huge stack of chips. My all0in did not make a dent in his stack, so he called my all-in chasing a flush. Of course he hit it on the turn and I was drawing dead. Out in the middle of the pack. Man I hate that!

I played in a cash game afterwards. It was a lot of fun but I managed to lose $8.

My lesson was that size does matter and when there is a table change I need to look around, spending some time analyzing the table, the new players, their position, and the size of there stack. I may not have played the hand much differently but in hind site I should have put him on the flush draw and just called his $500.

Play on!